It speaks volumes that Russia, rather than Israel, has been going public with details of a "hotline" and joint air exercises they have launched to avoid an accidental clash in the skies over Syria.<br />Israel is unusually tight-lipped about the military coordination, a reticence that officials and experts say stems in part from reluctance to signal any significant strategic shift away from the United States, its key ally but one that has reduced Middle East engagements as Russia steps up its own.<br />In a three-week-old campaign, Russian aircraft have backed up Syrian President Bashar Assad's troops as they try to regain ground lost to rebels during a civil war raging since 2011.<br />"We don't interfere with them and they don't interfere with us," Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said in a radio interview, tersely summing up Israel's accommodation with Russia.
